Of Monsters and Men – ‘Little Talks’

16 August 2012

Or if you like, the music from a ton of TV ads and montages but not the ukulele one, which is ‘Riptide’ by Vance Joy. Interestingly, while ‘Little Talks’ was originally a US hipster pick in late 2011 and then a global hit in 2012—between ad breaks as well as during them—it only got to number one in three countries: Iceland, where they’re from; Mexico, a natural home for the track’s mariachi-style blare; and here in Ireland. (It didn’t crack the UK top ten and in America reached no. 20. At the time I was living in France, where it barely scraped into the top thirty.)

Is there any reason in particular why we in Ireland may have clutched it more closely to our hearts? That blaring accordion doesn’t sound a million miles away from the vibe of an Irish céilí, and in my mind’s ear I can hear it get plenty of covers and interpretations in live music pubs beyond the Pale as well as on TG4’s neverending litany of country & Irish shows. Its folk-pop hipster provenance has a large user base in Ireland too, from the streets of Stoneybatter to the surf shops of Lahinch, and those student Beirut fans of the ’00s had evidently found ad agency jobs by 2012. So, ‘Little Talks’ may well be a rare Irish moment when our culchies and hipsters joined hands across the culture-war barricades. That said, I’ve no doubt that as soon as ‘Little Talks’ became popular the hipsters dropped it like a hot turd.

As you’ve probably surmised, I’m not smitten by the Fleadh-Cheoil-friendly hipster kookiness of ‘Little Talks’, and its rambling indie-folk means there isn’t much else to interest me. But hey: you go ahead and enjoy it, finish your Rockshore, and live your best life.